What happens below the surface now matters to far more than navies. Energy operators, port authorities, telecommunication companies, and coast guards all share the same problem: vast areas to watch, and not enough resources. Autonomous systems allow smaller teams to monitor wider areas, for longer and at lower risk and cost. Yet the market is fragmented: platforms, sensors, and software from different suppliers, each with its own interfaces, support arrangements, and export constraints.
Sentiq has been created to respond to that challenge. It adapts and integrates commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms and payloads to the customer’s mission and delivers a turnkey system, complete with training and through-life logistic support, all from a single Italian point of contact.
Sentiq’s offering covers three domains:
• Surface: the SQ family of modular USVs, configurable for hydrographic survey, environmental monitoring, offshore asset inspection, and persistent surveillance, as well as defense missions such as mine countermeasures (MCM) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW).
• Underwater: sonars for detecting intruders, in fixed (SQ DDS) and portable (SQ PDDS) versions, and long-range (SQ UDS) to protect ports, naval bases, coastlines, and critical infrastructure, supported by inspection-class ROVs.
• Air: tactical aerial drones that extend the surveillance reach of surface assets beyond the horizon.
Sentiq was founded by Antonio J. Belfiore, a retired Italian Navy Commander specializing in mine warfare. During his career he held operational and staff appointments at national and international level. After 25 years of active service, he gained business development and sales experience with defense and subsea technology companies in Denmark and the United Kingdom, before establishing his own strategic consultancy in 2025 and conceiving the idea for Sentiq in 2026.
“I spent most of my career at sea, in mine warfare, and later training the people who do this job,” says Antonio J. Belfiore, Founder and CEO of Sentiq Defence. “I learned that technology rarely fails on its own: what fails is integration. Sentiq was created to give anyone who works at sea – navies, coast guards, port and energy operators – full control of their domain: mission-focused solutions developed with our international partners, tailored here in Italy and supported by people who have done the job themselves. That, for us, is why we operate under the principle of ‘Command your space.'”
Sentiq is based in Bordighera, at the western end of the Ligurian coast—a strategic location within reach of both Genoa and La Spezia and of the French clusters of Sophia Antipolis and Toulon.
The company’s growth plan has three steps: consolidating and expanding its international technology partnerships, building an assembly, integration, and test capability hub in western Liguria, and developing training and through-life support in Italy for sovereign and international customers.
